1. Field
One or more exemplary embodiments relate to a method and apparatus for selecting a seed area for tracking nerve fibers in a brain, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for selecting a seed area as an interest area for reconfiguring nerve fibers on an image of a brain which is obtained from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a typical non-invasive brain measuring technique by which a human body is exposed to a uniform magnetic field and a sectional image of the human body is drawn from information that is obtained via nuclear magnetic resonance. Nuclear magnetic resonance signifies that, when a particular high frequency is incident on an atomic nucleus in a state magnetized by an external magnetic field, an atomic nucleus which is in a relatively low energy state absorbs high frequency energy, thereby becoming excited to a relatively high energy state.
According to a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique, which is a type of MRI technique, information which relates to movements of water molecules may be obtained from a resonance signal which is obtained from a human body located in a magnetic field, and a diffusion tensor may be calculated from the obtained information. Then, directivity of nerve fibers in the white matter of a brain is estimated based on the calculated diffusion tensor, and thus the connection of nerve fibers is virtually reconfigured. According to the DTI technique, because an image of neurons of a brain is obtainable, a detailed diagnosis of a brain disease may be obtainable based on the image.
In order to study or clinically use an image of a brain which is obtained by using the DTI technique, a process of searching for tracks which pass particular interest areas within the image of the brain and checking the shapes and trends of corresponding tracks is needed. The interest areas are referred to as seed areas or seed points. The nerve fiber tracks which pass through the seed areas are tracked and may be used for diagnosis of a disease and an operation schedule.
Accordingly, software supporting the DTI technique provides a method of defining a seed area. To this end, a method for receiving a user input which relates to manually drawing a seed area on a 2D image of a brain which has been obtained from DTI data has been used.
However, according to the method of manually defining a seed area, a seed area which is manually drawn by a user must be repeatedly corrected until the desired seed area is correctly represented, and thus, a relatively large amount of time is consumed during the drawing process. Also, in spite of the amount of time spent on manually drawing the desired seed area, the accuracy of a defined seed area may be low.